The present disclosure relates to a method of forming a vicinal semiconductor-carbon alloy crystalline surface.
Referring to FIG. 1, an annealed surface of a single crystalline silicon carbide substrate is shown. The surface of the single crystalline silicon carbide substrate is pitted because selective evaporation of silicon atoms during anneal at an elevated temperature of about 1,450° C. results in formation of pitted surfaces and graphitization on all exposed surfaces. The flat regions of the graphene layers formed on such surfaces do not laterally extend over a wide area due to the presence of the pits, and consequently, the graphene layer quality may not be as high as it could if it consisted of only flat regions. Since the graphene layers on the surface follow the contours of the pitted surface of the single crystalline silicon carbide substrate, the orientations of the graphene layers vary. The randomness of the orientations of the graphene layer on this type of surface combined with the surface topography makes it difficult to provide useful devices employing the fragmented graphene layers on this type of surface. Therefore, a contiguous sheet of a graphene layer having a clearly defined constant orientation over a large area would be desirable.